CD 's future is not what it used to be

A physicist working for IBM Germany made experiments to evaluate the life expectancy of CD-R. According to his findings, it would range between as low as 2 and 5 years depending on the quality of the media. The culprit is the organic layer, which deteriorates faster than expected.
This is all very worrying in a time when CD and DVD are massively relied on for the storage of whole parts of our now digital lives.
Just to be sure, I extracted my oldest CD-R from the deep end of my closet. It was burnt more than 9 years ago, on 20th October 1996. It is still perfectly readable and copying it was a piece of cake. Apart from the absence of exposure to light, it hasn't benefitted from any special storage conditions.
Future will tell if the end of the 20th century and the beginning of this one will be labelled "post-history" for lack of any traces.